The city of Vuorin Vahemain, though it shares a name with the Iiriemite city, is nothing short of unique. It is an elvish monastic center dedicated to the worship of Anunë hidden amongst the Brandgelts and protected from the outside world by its extreme distance and the dangerous passes that lead to the Luostrian peak. Of course, the elves have secret roads through the mountains and, many centuries ago, hired the dwarves of Deepmine to assist them in making a series of hidden underground roads for travel during the winter when the passes are blocked.

Vuorin is above the snow-level of the mountains, meaning it is perpetually icy and covered in snow. Crops are impossible to grow there, and so the city maintains a number of small holdings in warm valley-bottoms in the surrounding mountains, each of which pays food-tribute to the monastery and the people of the city.

The city proper sits athwart the shoulders of Mount Luotrso, covering it nearly three-quarters of the way around the peak’s base. Two hundred feet higher up, atop the sacred monument itself, is the High Monastery, founded in the mid-Fifth Age by the blessed Elandriene who came with four of her closest followers to be nearer to the font of the winds. The monastery affects all things within the city, and is its sole reason for existing. It is a major pilgrimage site and a holy-city of wind elves from every elvish nation.

The population of Vuorin has dwindled in the past five hundred years, being affected quite badly by the Bleeding Plague; since Vuorin is a hub for elvish pilgrimage at the time of the Bleeding Plague almost every elf magus in the world knew the runic combination to access the Silver Circle hidden deep in the Twilight Vale. As a crossroads of elvish culture, the Plague spread quickly throughout Vuorin and it served as a launching point for much of the disease in other parts of the elvish world.

Today, Vuorin’s once massive metropolis has been reduced to around four thousand permanent citizens, with another thousand pilgrims being present at any given time. These numbers do not take into account the holdings of Vuorin scattered in the surrounding mountains, but this is still a much reduced account of one of the greatest cities of elven-kind. Many ancient familial houses stand abandoned throughout the rocky garden-like city, and it is a sad place with inhabitants prone to reflection and sorrow.

The Ranger-Guard form the core of the cities’ watchmen. In addition they range far over the mountains, protecting the caravans of Vuorin and doing battle with whatever evils they find there. They are an arm of the monastery, and as such must serve the Gwydereon in all things. When within the city they are called the White Watchers or the Watchers of Vice and Virtue. Those who disobey the dictates of the monastery must contend with the White Watchers, and more than a few Vuorin citizens have been executed for worshiping the elvish shadow-gods.

The monastery is a huge complex of sculpted stone towers, balustrades, domes, and open windchambers that surround rock gardens of unshaped stone that have been left where they stand as evidence of the power of the Wind Lord, who’s great zephyrs have eroded the rock into the shapes as they are found. The High Monastery is forbidden save for elves and those who have proved themselves to the priesthood.

The monastery soars over the city, located a hundred and fifty feet above it on the peak, while the rest of Vuorin sits athwart the mountainside. The High Monastery is the seat of government as well as worship in Vuorin, and its chimes can be heard ringing the stations of the hours throughout the day.

Accessing the monastery is not easy, as it is a high climb along the Road of the Winds, exposed to the elements. Along the road one will find small hermitages and shrines paid for by those pilgrims of means who reached the top and made donation to the monastery.